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Monday, 2 November 2015

KING’S PAPER ACCUSES MEDIA OF LIES

The Observer Sunday, a newspaper in effect owned by Swaziland’s King
Mswati III, has accused media in India of lying about the extravagancies of the
King’s visit to that country.

The newspaper which is
part of the Swazi Observer
group,labelled as a ‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’ by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
in a report on press freedom in Swaziland, objected to reports in a number of
media outlets during the King’s October 2015 visit to the Indo-Africa summit in
Delhi.

The Observerobjected
to reports that the King, who is
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, took 100 servants, 30 of his family
and 15 wives on the trip. He reportedly booked about 200 rooms at a five-star
hotel for his entourage.

The reports originally
appeared in Zee Media and News
World India. Reports said a single hotel room cost
up to US$230 a night.

The Observer
also criticised Swazi Media Commentary, the internationally-renowned website
that has been reporting on human rights issues in Swaziland since 2007, for
drawing global
attention to the news reports.

The Observer
called the reports ‘blatant lies’
but offered its readers no evidence to support its case. Nor did it inform its
readers of the cost of the King’s trip.

There has been an
international spotlight on King Mswati’s extravagant spending for many years,
but media in Swaziland remain silent on the matter. In
2011, Alec Lushaba, editor of the Weekend Observer, wrote
that the newspaper group would never publish anything about
the monarchy without the King’s approval.

In 2007, Forbes, the internationally-respected
media group, revealed that the King had a personal fortune estimated to be
US$200 million.

The King has at least 13
palaces, a private jet, a fleet of top-of-the-range Mercedes Benz and BMW cars
and at least one Rolls Royce car.

Meanwhile, as recently as
Friday (30 October 2015) the Mail and
Guardian (M&G) newspaper in
South Africa reported that despite the financial meltdown in the kingdom, King
Mswati’s government has approved a plan to lease a private A-340 jet for the
King. The M&G reported, ‘Industry
sources estimated the annual cost of leasing an A-340 – over and above running
costs and fixed costs such as insurance – at about $9-million (E122-million).’

M&G also reported, ‘King Mswati’s wealth is a closely guarded secret,
but it has been variously estimated at between US$50-million and
US$200-million.

‘In addition to his
enormous government salary, Mswati controls the royal investment house, Tibiyo
Taka Ngwane, which draws mining royalties and has stakes in the Royal Swaziland
Sugar Corporation and hotel chain Swazi Spa Holdings. He has direct stakes in
other firms, including 10 percent of MTN Swaziland.’

It added, ‘Swaziland’s
Gini coefficient is 51.5, meaning that of 187 countries ranked by the United
Nations Development Programme in terms of wealth inequality, it stands at 170.’

It reported the King ruled over a kingdom which has
one of the world’s highest HIV prevalence rates: over 35 percent of adults. Its
average life expectancy was the lowest in the world at 33 years; nearly 70
percent of the country’s people live on less than US$1 a day and 40 percent are
unemployed.

It added, ‘But for all the suffering of the Swazi
people, King Mswati has barely shown concern or interest.